We love bikes. How can you tell?

This fabric shouted "buy me and make a bike friendly skirt!" It is the very first item I made when I decided to be a fashion designer! It is from Japan and I used ideas from Samurai costumes for design elements.

I saw some buddies over the weekend at the opening for Apparel Arts, which moved its campus from SF to Oakland. It was great to see the Oakland contingent and hearing what everyone is up to. I started the week off by editing my patterns, making appointments and finalizing a couple of spring samples. Here is a jacket and top combo I was thinking of:

and a summer pant:

I also have been playing with a tunic design with my signature big pocket.

Midweek, I got an email from Yoshi’s and I noticed Rufus Wainwright was on their calendar for early Feb! So I scored some tickets which was quite unbelievable in itself. I felt like celebrating already! So I immediately started working on a dress for the concert. It is much like my architect dress which is a more artistic piece. The architect dress was on my agenda to make a sample for anyway, so that assuaged any guilt I might have had by sewing clothes for myself! I started off by making this gown:

…then thought I should make it with more shaping:

Both of these are works in progress but I really like how the embroidery came out on the gown, so I may keep going for this design for the show. Later on this week, if I have time I will get some fabric samples for my line which will be cool grey, blue, black, white and a shot of yellow. I see all the buds opening on the trees, so it is coming for sure. So excited to be going to see RW, I know it will be a fantastic show. I found out it’s already sold out!